Suicide at Preikestolen vs Polish Media Pathology - On Standards of Humanity and National Weakness

A few weeks ago, while descending from the mountains in Poland, I had a very interesting conversation with a soldier. A typical conversation one has after finishing a nice hike. We argued about what would happen in Poland when war breaks out. I turned out to be an incorrigible optimist, arguing that Poles wouldn’t be able to flee abroad. The soldier spoke of relocations, and also that people would flee. While recently in Norway, I met a Danish retiree whose daughter sells real estate in Italy. Most of her clients are doctors, lawyers, and wealthy people from Poland who buy apartments and houses in case conflict breaks out. Now, after returning from Scandinavia, I understood with full force: we are an easy target. Polarized, weakened by hatred and bile, a very easy target.

I know that violence, bile, and hatred have been present in Poland for years. But only contact with Scandinavian civilization made me realize how dramatically weak we are as a society. Scandinavian standards are not just clean streets and efficient offices - they are primarily a culture of mutual respect, which in our country has been displaced by a culture of permanent conflict. I’m talking here about the most elementary level - respect for the Other.

It dawned on me that no cutting-edge technologies will help us if morale is so low. If we not only fail to respect our own history, creating false and alternative versions of it, but also undermine authorities by generating new conspiracy theories that will never be debunked or confirmed because they are elements of political warfare. No barriers built by the army will help us if walls divide us from within and we see enemies in our neighbors and family.

The Tragedy I Witnessed

On July 17, 2025, while at Preikestolen, I witnessed a tragedy. Around 10:00 AM, the plateau was closed due to a “serious incident.” A rescue helicopter circled over the fjords until 3:00 PM, and police later confirmed that a man had fallen from the edge and presumably lost his life. In the police report, the incident was described as a “willed action” - an intentional act, i.e., suicide.

As someone who has observed the Polish media scene and its approach to tragic events for years, I was curious how Norwegian media would handle this incident. I was met with emptiness. For the next two weeks, I couldn’t find any press coverage. International media also didn’t pick up information about the event. This was shocking for someone accustomed to Polish standards.

A Norwegian Lesson in Humanity

In Poland, such a tragedy would be material for at least a week of sensational articles. We would have photos from the scene, leaks, new information, speculation about motives, interviews with “experts.” Some retired police officer on morning television would discuss every aspect of the case, and if the victim had any political connections - it would be a bombshell for months.

In Norway? Silence. No details, no photos, no sensationalism. This is not coincidence or journalistic laziness - it’s a conscious choice of a civilized society and ethos. Write down that last word, because in Poland it has no value whatsoever. Here, only money matters. After all, prices are low, we sell ourselves cheaply, if I’m being honest.

Norwegian media follow the “Vær Varsom-plakaten” (Code of Caution), which regarding suicides is absolute:

• Avoiding sensational coverage that is not necessary to satisfy general information needs
• Prohibition of describing methods or details that might provoke copycat behavior
• Restrained presentation without seeking sensation
• Respect for those in mourning and avoiding identification of victims
• No prominent placement - no front pages or main headlines (leads)

Practically every one of these elements is foreign to Polish media culture, but I would say more broadly - to Polish everyday life. We don’t have such standards toward others in our lives, so it’s hard to demand that when there’s a lack of respect and restraint, because only sensation, getting at someone, and money matter, then if there’s demand, there’s also supply for such behavior.

Polish Pathology Against Norwegian Culture

The contrast with Poland is terrifying. Here, every suicide, especially if it concerns a public figure or their family, becomes propaganda material. Remember the exploitation of a parliament member’s son’s suicide by PiS media for political harassment? That was the moment when Polish journalism definitively crossed the line of humanity. Moreover, every stumble by right-wing politicians, if it concerns their private life, is also ruthlessly exploited as an example of hypocrisy, and even if it affects their closest ones, female solidarity or sparing the youngest family members no longer counts.

In Norway - when the prime minister’s son committed suicide about 30 years ago - the media did not report on it, despite the fact that it affected the functioning of the government. In the following years, the ethical code was rewritten, but still with an emphasis on caution and avoiding details that could provoke further suicides. Please read this sentence twice so that it sinks in.

This is the difference between a country where journalism serves society and a country where it serves clickbait and political agitation. In Poland, we have total collapse in every aspect.

“Copycat Suicides” - Scientific Basis for Norwegian Standards

These high civilizational standards didn’t come from nowhere. Norwegian restrictions are not prudishness, but science. Research unequivocally confirms the existence of “copycat suicides” - detailed descriptions of methods or sensational coverage increase the risk of subsequent tragedies.

In Poland, meanwhile, interviews are conducted with parents who have been searching for years for children who probably committed suicide, encouraging viewers on air to continue searching for bodies or provide information. The context of tragedies is described in detail and the topic is dragged out to the end, displaying advertisements in the process - because drama attracts traffic, and traffic means money.

We have journalists publishing photos from crime scenes, describing the exact course of suicides, and even exploiting family tragedies for political warfare. This is not journalism - this is media necrophilia.

Service Discipline vs Polish Chaos

But the differences aren’t just in media. Norwegian services work with surgical precision and absolute discretion. Police provide minimum information, focusing on facts necessary for public safety. Here, photos from accidents leak on closed groups because Polish law doesn’t work. There are no absolute penalties, no ethos, no ethics.

Polish reality consists of details leaking from services to media, officers posing for photos at crime scenes, prosecutors giving interviews before investigations conclude. Social media full not only of unofficial reports but fake news and speculation heated up by successive publications. Every tragedy is an opportunity to profit from clicks.

In Norway, no one takes selfies with tragedy in the background. No one sells information to tabloids. There’s no political trading on human tragedy. This is the difference between professionalism and a Polish marketplace where everything is for sale. The difference between a country where services serve citizens and a country where everyone seeks their morsel from others’ misfortune.

We Have a Problem with Violence and How We Define Humanity

This isn’t just about “good manners” or “culture.” It’s about how society treats the most tragic moments in people’s lives defining its humanity. So much is said about us having an empathetic society. In my opinion, the Norwegian attitude expresses civilizational maturity - understanding that not everything that can be described should be described. That there are boundaries not crossed even in the name of “right to information.”

The Polish attitude expresses media barbarism - everything is material, every tragedy can be converted into clicks, every pain can be exploited politically. After all, for so many years we’ve been beating each other over the coffins of those who died in the Smolensk catastrophe. Some are denied their Polishness, relatives are humiliated, dead politicians are turned into jokes about what they were doing in their final moments, suggesting the accident was intentional. This bile has been fermenting in the nation for years and new generations of Poles have grown up who don’t remember normalcy. This is the new normal.

Why do I consider this a problem? Because we have a problem in Poland with the language of violence, with approval for violence, and shifting boundaries while the mechanisms embedded as safeguards don’t work. I’m not even talking about high media culture or service ethos, but about the fact that if law is broken, punishment should follow. In Poland there’s not only tolerance for breaking the law (widespread turning a blind eye), but also law is not respected because it doesn’t work. Penalties are not enforced.

Preikestolen as Metaphor

Standing on the edge of Preikestolen, looking at the place where tragedy had unfolded hours earlier, I thought about this difference. The 600-meter precipice over Lysefjord is nothing compared to the civilizational chasm between Norwegian and Polish approaches to human tragedy. Can such a polarized nation, saturated with bile and violence, stand in defense of the homeland in the face of impending war with Russia? Maybe this bile and polarization are being deliberately stoked? Many people claim that when push comes to shove, Poles wake up. When war broke out, there was an uprising and we helped Ukrainians. Every year there’s an uprising and we pay for Owsiak’s charity because we can’t solve the healthcare tragedy systematically. I ask: why is there hate toward Ukrainians today, why doesn’t healthcare still work, why doesn’t anything work in this country? Why can’t we deal with drivers habitually breaking traffic rules? Why are penalties not enforced and ridiculously small? Will an “urrraaa” uprising really be able to cope with the powerful machine of propaganda, disinformation, and polarization of the Russian Federation? In my opinion, no. Because we live in a cardboard country, and polarization has deepened our problems, in my opinion, probably irreversibly.

Unfortunately, we too often fall into the abyss of Polish media pathology.

A Lesson for Poland

Maybe someday Polish media will learn the Norwegian lesson of humanity? Maybe they’ll understand that not every tragedy must be material for a sensational article? Maybe prosecutors will stop holding press conferences about suicides?

For now, however, the difference remains drastic. Norway shows what a civilized society looks like. Poland - what a media marketplace looks like, where everything has its price, even human dignity.

Standing at Preikestolen, I saw not only the beauty of Norwegian nature but also the beauty of Norwegian standards. It’s a shame I had to travel so far to see what true humanity in media looks like. How can a society that cannot treat its own tragedies with respect defend itself against an external enemy? Today I’m no longer such an optimist when trying to answer the question of what Poles will do when zero hour strikes. Standing over the abyss, I felt safer in Norway than in Polish chaos… Let’s start with small steps, but not toward the precipice.

The author witnessed the described events. The text was written based on official Norwegian police communications and analysis of Norwegian media standards.

Supplement: Anatomy of Norwegian Ethics – Why This System Works?

Supplement based on an article from Ethical Journalism Network. The Norwegian media standards I wrote about don’t come from nowhere. They aren’t the result of better national character, but a precisely designed, transparent system. Here are its key pillars that explain why it’s so effective and fundamentally different from Polish chaos.

• Self-regulation Above All Norway has no state body to monitor media. The entire system is based on self-regulation. The industry itself – journalists, editors, and publishers – created and funds the Press Complaints Commission (PFU) and the ethical code “Vær Varsom-plakaten.” They take responsibility for their own standards.

• State Trust as Proof of Effectiveness This system works so well and enjoys such enormous trust that the Norwegian government abolished the state media oversight commission, deeming it unnecessary. This is proof of the maturity and effectiveness of self-regulation, which in Poland sounds like science fiction.

• Radical Transparency in Practice Responsibility isn’t an empty word. Part of the ethics commission meetings, where complaints against journalists are considered, are broadcast live on the internet. Anyone can see how media publicly account for their actions and take responsibility for mistakes.

• Culture of Ethics, Not Just Rules It’s more than following rules. Norway’s largest media conglomerates have their own internal codes, often even stricter than the national one. Ethics there is part of organizational culture and professionalism, not just an imposed obligation.

• A System That Learns from Mistakes The Norwegian system lives and evolves. Commission rulings lead to real changes in editorial procedures. Problems (such as the right to respond to criticism) are openly discussed and action is taken to resolve them, showing that the mechanism is geared toward continuous improvement.

It’s precisely these mechanisms – based on trust, responsibility, and transparency – that create the civilizational chasm I wrote about. It’s not magic, it’s well-designed institutions, ethics and principles in action. Thank you for your attention.

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